The bottle for the cyanotype solution is labeled May 2013, but I think this is when I combined the two separate parts, potassium ferricyanide and ammonium ferric citrate; those have been in solution for probably a year or more before I combined them into the same bottle. The cork of the bottle has been soaked through with cyanotype solution, but still smelled faintly of bourbon when I popped it. That's what I get for storing chemistry in poorly-washed liquor bottles. Into the fabric it goes!

My main goal for this test was to practice aligning the pattern, since I'm intending on dying an entire bolt of fabric in the near future. A manila folder is heavy enough to block out exposure, though I will probably switch to black cardstock for subsequent exposures due to paranoia.

8 minute exposures per segment, under the home-cooked UV box that's been on campus for as long as I have known.

Immediately after exposure, along the actual seam where I aligned two separate exposures. The linen is coarse enough that a little bullshit is hard to detect. No one will ever know.

Lukewarm water rinse for about fifteen minutes, including vigorous scrubbing. The highlights didn't clear very well, owing mostly to the age of the solution, I'm betting.

Spring, 2013

Digital source image; color separation gum bichromate print.

Details

A digital color photograph was separated into four color channels (CMYK), each printed as a digital negative with registration marks and color codes. Gum was layered and overcoated to allow for registration marks to show through. Each print used a different order for color layers, as well as different color intensities and exposure times. Gum bichromate was tinted with liquid watercolors and exposed with late morning sunlight.